Local Expert
Northeast Florida Keeps Getting Better. Here's What's New.
Ben Cote • May 14, 2026
Professional soccer, a University of Florida graduate campus, a new retail village, and 3,500 new healthcare jobs — Northeast Florida just keeps announcing new reasons to be here. Here's what's new in 2026.
Northeast Florida Keeps Getting Better. Here's What's New.
By Ben Cote | NE Florida Realtor | eXp Realty
What You'll Learn From This Post
- A brand new professional soccer stadium coming to Jacksonville's backyard
- Why the University of Florida just made a generational bet on Jacksonville
- The new retail village that just broke ground near St. Johns Town Center
- Why St. Johns County is about to become one of the strongest healthcare markets in Florida
- Two new additions to Jacksonville's downtown waterfront worth knowing about
A few weeks ago I wrote about the billions of dollars actively being invested in Jacksonville and St. Johns County right now. The Four Seasons. The Zoo transformation. The USS Orleck. The downtown parks. The new fairgrounds.
The ink wasn't even dry before more announcements dropped.
This region doesn't slow down. Here's what's new.
Professional Soccer Is Coming to Jacksonville — And It's Going to Be Big
In March 2026, Sporting Club Jacksonville announced plans to build a soccer-specific stadium and mixed-use development on 364 acres on the Southside — nestled between Town Center Parkway, St. Johns Bluff Road, and the University of North Florida.
The project is entirely privately financed. No public money. The ownership group's stated goal is a destination that is active 365 days a year — not just on match days. Think hospitality, retail, regional events, and a professional sports anchor all on one site near one of the most trafficked corridors in Northeast Florida.
Here's why this matters specifically for St. Johns County: Sporting Jax operates the largest soccer academy in St. Johns County. Thousands of kids in this region play in their system. The ownership group has been explicit that this is a North Florida project — built for the entire region, not just the city limits.
For families moving here with kids in soccer — and there are a lot of them — this is the kind of infrastructure that makes a region feel like it's building toward something. Professional soccer, a world-class facility, and a development designed around the way people in Northeast Florida already live their lives.
This one is worth watching closely.
The University of Florida Just Chose Jacksonville
This is the story that doesn't get enough attention.
In December 2024, the University of Florida announced it had selected LaVilla — a historic neighborhood in downtown Jacksonville — as the site for a new graduate center campus. The city is providing multiple properties for the site. Plans are actively moving forward.
Let that sink in for a moment.
UF is one of the top public universities in the country. When an institution of that caliber makes a long-term commitment to a city — a physical, permanent commitment in the form of a graduate campus — it changes that city's trajectory. Permanently.
Graduate campuses bring talent. They bring research. They attract corporations that want proximity to that talent pipeline. They generate economic activity that compounds over decades. They signal to the rest of the country that this city is serious about its future.
Jacksonville just got that signal. And it happened quietly enough that most people driving through on I-95 still don't know about it.
The Village at Seven Pines Just Broke Ground
In February 2026, Regency Centers — a Jacksonville-founded company that has been shaping this region's retail landscape since 1963 — broke ground on The Village at Seven Pines.
Here's what's coming: a Publix-anchored retail village with tenants including Pottery Barn Kids, Williams Sonoma, 1928 Cuban Bistro, St. Augustine-based Ember & Iron, ToyTopia, RE Spa, and Chase Bank. All within the Seven Pines master-planned development at southeast Butler Boulevard and Interstate 295.
At full build-out, Seven Pines is planned for approximately 1,600 single-family homes, apartments, and more than one million square feet of commercial and retail space on roughly 1,000 acres.
For families relocating to the greater Jacksonville area — this is the kind of retail infrastructure that makes daily life feel complete. Williams Sonoma and Pottery Barn Kids don't open in markets without strong household income and long-term demographic confidence. Neither does Regency Centers. These are institutional votes of confidence in the people moving here.
St. Johns County Is About to Become a Healthcare Powerhouse
This one doesn't make headlines the way a soccer stadium does. But for families relocating here — especially those in their late 30s to mid-50s thinking about long-term quality of life — it matters as much as anything else on this list.
St. Johns County currently has six healthcare systems operating in the county. Six. Most growing counties in Florida are fortunate to have one. UF Health, AdventHealth, and other medical systems are all actively expanding here simultaneously — with the county projecting 3,500 new healthcare jobs created in the next three years alone.
For context — this isn't just an economic story. It's a quality of life story. Access to multiple competing healthcare systems means better care, more options, shorter wait times, and a level of medical infrastructure that most master-planned community searches don't even think to ask about.
It's one more reason St. Johns County keeps pulling families from New England who are used to strong institutions and don't want to give that up in the move.
Two More Downtown Additions Worth Knowing About
The Music Heritage Garden
Jacksonville has a music history most people don't know about. The city that gave the world Lynyrd Skynyrd. A live music scene that runs deep. A cultural legacy that deserves its own landmark.
It's getting one. A $6 million Music Heritage Garden is under construction along the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts waterfront — featuring walkways shaped like musical notes, playable recordings of music connected to Jacksonville's history, and a Walk of Fame dedicated to local musicians. Expected completion spring 2026.
It's a small project by the standards of everything else happening in this city right now. But it's the kind of detail that gives a place character. That makes it feel like somewhere — not just somewhere to live.
RiversEdge on the Southbank
The $693 million RiversEdge mixed-use development on the former JEA Southside Generating Station site has opened four connected parks along the Southbank Riverwalk — featuring winding walkways, a yoga lawn, and a playground with high-tech touch-activated games. Toll Brothers has model homes open and townhomes actively on the market.
The Southbank is becoming a genuine destination. Between RiversEdge, the revamped Friendship Fountain, and the extended Riverwalk, there is a continuous, walkable waterfront experience taking shape on both sides of the St. Johns River simultaneously.
What This All Means
A professional soccer stadium. A University of Florida graduate campus. A new retail village. Three thousand five hundred new healthcare jobs. A music heritage landmark. A transformed Southbank waterfront.
None of this happens in a market without momentum. None of it happens in a region that isn't attracting the kind of people — and the kind of investment — that compounds over time.
The families buying in St. Johns County and greater Jacksonville right now aren't just buying a home in a nice community. They're buying into a region that keeps announcing new reasons to be here. Every few weeks. Without slowing down.
That's not an accident. That's a market in motion.
Want to talk through what all of this means for a specific community or price point you're considering? That's exactly the conversation I have with relocating families every week.
👉 thecotecollective.com/relocate
Ben Cote | NE Florida Realtor | eXp Realty | 802.734.2397